Act II

Chapter 10-3

The New Suns

Week 2 - Day 5

The hangar was buzzing with activity and the workers laid off from the line were hard at work fixing the team's ACs that had been damaged in previous day's battles. Alexander was coordinating the effort on the floor while Noland was directing people from the catwalk that lead to the office. The hangar smelled of metal, oil, and sweat. The various machines that now filled the hangar could be heard as the new crew used them to do whatever task the machines were designed to do. A loud metallic bang echoed throughout the hangar as the armor on the front of the Black Wolf's Core hit the floor and Noland looked to Alexander who was shaking his head at the sight. Noland made his way down from the catwalk to catch up with Alexander who was heading over to the Black Wolf.

"You guys wrecked the ACs," Alexander said, directing workers to assignments as he passed them.

"We had to. Loosing to rookie teams won't look good on the resume," Noland joked.

"We're stripping the Black Wolf down but it's not like we can replace all it's armor. It's Tesla Engine got hit an the bullets really screwed up the wiring. Same story across the board," Alexander said as he and Noland arrived to at the Black Wolf.

"Can you fix it?" Noland asked, concerned.

"Yeah but it'll be a quick fix to get you into the next fight. It's performance'll suffer a lot,"

"I'll manage. As long as it can move and shoot-"

"That'll be all it can do..." Alexander interruppted. Noland left Alexander to his work and went up to the office where Lewis was going over the recordings of Black Raven's next opponent.

"Where's Alessia?" Noland asked as he sat.

"Alessia's at a meeting, trying to get us sponsors," Lewis told him..

"Oh yeah, she's the owner now..." Noland thought aloud. Lewis sighed as he put the next recording on the TV.

"We're in a tight spot, Nol. We need sponsors... soon. ACs can only get patched up so many times. And that last fight hit'em hard," Lewis said.

"I know. We all agreed before the match that losin' this early in the season would turn away sponsors," Noland reminded his coach.

"It ain't helpin' us that Alessia's attention's divided between managing the team and helpin' to plan our battles. Sooner we get our financial troubles settled, the better,"

"Agreed..." Noland said, "So what's the deal with these guys?"

Lewis and Noland watched one of the past matches of their next opponents. A rookie team, the New Suns. The team had a medium weight bipedal, armed with two shotguns and a chaingun on it's back. There was also a tank AC, covered in armor and packing two cannons on it's back. A heavy reverse joint was the third AC the team deployed and it carried a large weapon in it's hand although Noland couldn't tell what it was. It also carried a shield on it's elbow along with a rifle mounted on it's back.

"What weapon is that?"Noland asked, pointing to the large weapon in the heavy reverse joint's hand.

"A new weapon Summit Industries developed. Supposed to be some new cannon that any AC can use," Lewis informed him.

"Is it any good?" Noland asked. curious about the weapon. Lewis pulled up the recording he had been watching earlier. It was a five on three battle between the New Suns and another rookie team. Lewis skipped through the match until he got to the part where the heavy reverse joint began taking a more active role in the battle.

Two of the enemy ACs chased the New Suns' bipedal through the streets while the heavy reverse joint jumped off it's tank legged ally and onto a building. The heavy reverse joint planted it's feet on the roof and Noland watched in awe as the weapon unfolded, popping a large barrel into place. A bipod fell from the bottom of the barrel to help elevate the cannon barrel, completing the weapon's transformation.

The New Suns' bipedal made a sudden and sharp turn down a road, heading toward the reverse joints. The enemy ACs followed the bipedal and within a second, one of the enemy ACs had had both it's legs blown off in a single shot. The second enemy AC got cold feet and tried to retreat but the bipedal didn't allow it's opponent to flee. The New Suns' bipedal rushed the enemy AC, drawing it's fire and in a clever move, the bipedal got around it's enemy, putting it's enemy in the reverse joint's line of sight. The match had ended shortly after that thanks to a second shot from the reverse joint's cannon and the recording ended.

"Is it any good...?" Lewis asked sarcastically.

"They don't fight like rookies... at all..." Noland said, still in awe.

"They're talented an' with teamwork like that, I'm guessin' they got a pretty good coach..." Lewis sighed.

"A fight like this, this early on...? We really might not win this one..." Noland said.

"I can teach teamwork, coordination, and common sense, but strategy was never my strong suit. That's one of the reasons why I brought Alessia on. To help with the strategy. We need her to focus on the battles more..."

"But she can't because she has to manage the team..."

The two of them sighed.

"I'm sorry, miss Saint-Claire, but we just cannot sponsor your team. Not in the current state of affairs," said one of the men sitting at the long table. Most of the people there were old but some of them were just a few years older than Alessia.

"We're sponsoring three other teams already. One of which is Dread Scythe, the team that beat Black Raven two years ago in a off season exhibition and now they are the current champions," one of the older women said.

"And not to mention that last fight of yours... Black Raven's ACs were heavily damaged in that fight. If we sponsor your team, we'd have to throw a large amount of resources at you from day one. We just can't do that," another man said. A silence took hold of the room as Alessia processed what the people were saying to her.

"Thank you all for hearing me out," Alessia said humbly as she stood and gathered her things.

"Thank you for considering, Summit Industries as a potential sponsor. It's an honor and we are truly sorry that we cannot give you the sponsorship," the man at the other end of the table said.

Alessia left the room and made her way out of the building. She went to the parking deck and headed to her car. She got in her car and sat there for a moment then screamed.

"Stupid pricks! I hate this fucking job!" she screamed. She made several other unintelligble comments out of anger and when the anger was out of her system, she turned her car on then drove out of the parking deck onto the street. She set her GPS to the team hangar and sat back in her seat as the car drove itself.

Cael walked on the treadmill as Dr. Vinheim and his assistants observed. Some of them pointed things out in the data Cael was producing but when they got too loud Dr. Vinheim would gesture for them to be silent. After a few minutes, Cael stopped walking and got off the treadmill, sweating and tired. Dr. Vinheim went to his side and gave him a towel.

"How are you feeling?" Dr. Vinheim asked.

"Tired..." Cael said in between his panting.

"Do you feel any dizziness or discomfort or...?" Dr. Vinheim continued questioning.

"No..."

"Is there any pain where the Navis is? Or any unpleasant feeling?"

"No."

"Is there-"

"No, no, and no," Cael interrupted. Dr. Vinheim laughed.

"My last question would've been to ask if you wanted me to tell you what "Question" is but..."

"Not funny, doctor." Cael said flatly.

"Well, I'm laughing...!" Dr. Vinheim joked.

When Cael had showered, he went down to where the White Wolf was being repaired. Dr. Vinheim was already down there, overseeing the repairs and inputing data into the table computer. The White Wolf's armor had been stripped off and it was being disassembled. Cael watched as the crew took out the White Wolf's Tesla Engine and he gasped slightly. Dr. Vinheim heard Cael and answered the question that he assumed was on Cael's mind.

"That's a Tesla engine I developed... with the help of some of Omerta's best engineers of course," Dr. Vinheim said.

"Why does it look like that?" Cael asked, shocked by the Tesla engine. Unlike the cylinder shaped engines he was familiar with, the Tesla engine Dr. Vinheim had developed looked skeletal, like several spines had been attached to one another with smaller spines.

"Well, I was on a timer when making it. I had to study the theory behind the Tesla engines and didn't have much time to study the engines themselves. The result was the White Wolf's engine. It works and it's efficient. Hard to repair, not that good looking, mind you, but it meets the standards of the ACFL," Dr. Vinheim explained.

"There're a lot of parts I don't recognize..." Cael pointed out.

"Yes, well, we decided to build a lot from scratch. There weren't many parts we could choose from to get the White Wolf the performance numbers we were aiming for,"

"So you can fabricate your own parts?"

"Well, yes. The benefits of working with Omerta Sciences, I suppose. We can't just make anything though. If only..."

"So this means that the White Wolf II is-"

"A completely unique AC, designed from the ground up specifically for you, Mr. Nox," Dr. Vinheim said as he laughed. Cael grinned from ear to ear as he watched the crew work on the White Wolf.